Category Archives: Smart Biz

The Standard and Poor’s Index was established in 1957 with 500 corporate giants of the day making the list. In 2017, only 60 of the original firms remain on the list. That is an attrition rate of eighty-eight percent. Along the way, 440 of these companies succumbed to bankruptcy, mergers or acquisitions. Some exist today but are now too small to make the list. By 2012, the average tenure of a Fortune 500 company had dropped from 33 years to meagre 18 years. Continue reading It’s the people, stupid!→

In 1870, when Manitoba joined Confederation, it was with a sense of hope and possibility that drew people from all over the world. The sky was the limit – no project was too big, no effort beyond us. The future was bright and shining with hope. We were possibilitarians! Continue reading Creating the Manitoba Possibilitarians!→

Now that we’ve got your attention, SmartBIZ is very excited to announce we will be writing a monthly beer column talking about local trends, pairings, flavours, tips, and suggestions as well as many other topics.

Being that this is a very special issue of SmartBIZ, as we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday, we thought this would be a good time to celebrate some fascinating Canadian beer facts along with some strange-but-true facts to discuss with your friends while enjoying a tasty beverage bringing in Canada’s 150.

Stubbies! The “stubby” bottle was iconic in Canada until it was taken out of circulation in the 1980s when Canadian brewers switched over to American-style longnecks. As it turns out, market research showed that women didn’t like the stubby, preferring the lengthy elegance of the longneck.

Beer Pre-Dates Confederation – Canadian beer is actually older than Canada. In fact, beer production in the Great White North pre-dates Confederation by a good 200 years.

Tavern Talk – In the early days of Canadian settlement, beer was an integral part of the community. That’s because the local tavern not only served beer, it was also a meeting place where the community would gather; a place for judges to hear complaints, politicians to seek votes and preachers to preach.

Beer economy – According to the Conference Board of Canada, one out of every 100 jobs in Canada is supported by the sale of beer, with every dollar we spend on beer generating $1.12 for the nation’s economy. This “beer economy,” in fact, supports 163,200 jobs throughout Canada.

Strange-but-true

At the Wife Carrying World Championships, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer. YES, there is such a thing as a Wife Carrying World Championship, and YES, first prize is the wife’s weight in beer. Still don’t believe us? You can see these “athletes” competing in events all over YouTube.

The moon has a crater named Beer.

In the 1980s, a beer-drinking goat was elected mayor of Lajitas, TX. True story!

Coined in the early 1900s, the word “alcoholiday” means leisure time spent drinking.

Although you won’t find it in regular dictionaries, apparently there’s an actual phobia in which sufferers experience fear of seeing an empty beer class. This disorder is called Cenosillicaphobia.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario found that micronutrients called polyphenols in one 12-ounce (0.35-liter) bottle of beer create protective levels of plasma antioxidants that can prevent heart disease.

Beer strengthens bones. It is rich in silicon that increases calcium deposits and minerals for bone tissue.

Ogoki Learning Inc. is the world leader when it comes to language apps

Canada’s Aboriginal languages are many and diverse, and their importance to indigenous people immense. During the past 100 years or more, nearly ten, once flourishing languages have become extinct; at least a dozen more are on the brink of extinction. When these languages vanish, they take with them unique ways of looking at the world.

Ogoki Learning Inc. is trying to preserve indigenous languages one app at a time.

It all started when Darrick Baxter, President of Ogoki Learning, created an Ojibwe language app for smartphones and tablets. Soon after the release, he noticed the app was doing what he hoped it would, teaching kids the Ojibwe language while keeping them engaged through mobile devices.

From that moment Baxter, who grew up in Winnipeg’s North End, knew he had to share the app with everyone, so he released the app for free.